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International Conciliation 



SPECIAL BULLETIN 



UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS AND THE SPIRIT 
OF MILITARISM IN THE UNITED STATES 

BY 

JOHN LOVEJOY ELLIOTT 

»« 

NON-MILITARY PREPARATION FOR 
NATIONAL DEFENSE 

BY 

R. TAIT McKENZIE. M. D. 

Reprinted from The Standard, December, 1914 




JUNE. 1915 



American Association for International Conciliation 

Sub-Station 84 (407 West 1 1 7th Street) 

New York City 



UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS AND THE SPIRIT OF 
MILITARISM IN THE UNITED STATES 

By JOHN LOVEJOY ELLIOTT 

There is a work of grave importance progressing 
rapidly and quietly among us of which few people out- 
side military and educational circles seem to be aware. 
That work is the formation of students' military in- 
struction camps. These camps were originally pro- 
posed in a circular letter from Major General Leonard 
Wood to the college presidents in 1913. Their pur- 
pose is to give to students in our universities and in the 
graduating classes of our high schools a military train- 
ing during the summer months. Arrangements have 
been completed to open during the coming summer four 
such camps, which have been located conveniently near 
great educational centers in the East, the South and 
the Middle and the Far West : at Plattsburgh, N. Y., 
Chickamauga Park, Ga., Lurington, Mich., and the 
Presidio of San Francisco, Gal. 

Such a movement might well be regarded with the 
utmost concern if it were simply under the auspices of 
the Secretary of War and the officers in the regular 
army ; but in addition it is commended to the attention 
of college authorities and students by the presidents of 
some of the leading universities, who have formed an 



advisory committee. This committee is composed of 
the presidents of Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Lehigh, 
the College of the City of New York, the University of 
Michigan, the University of Alabama, the Virginia 
Military Institute and the University of California. 
The heads of many other schools and colleges have 
given the plan their hearty endorsement, and the Presi- 
dent of the United States has lent to it the prestige of 
the great authority of his office and personality. The 
present excitement in regard to military affairs may be 
expected enormously to increase the numbers who will 
attend these camps. 

A great deal is said, not only in the prospectus is- 
sued from Washington, but also by the college presi- 
dents, about the advantages of health, the needed dis- 
cipHne, good food, and pleasant recreation that will be 
furnished by this undertaking ; but nothing can hide the 
fact that these military camps are intended to familiar- 
ize large numbers of students with the duties and work 
of soldiers. The United States army furnishes the 
equipment, sends its best officers as commanders and 
teachers, and outlines the curriculum. Some of the 
things included in the course are: theoretical study 
of tactics (carried on practically by the students in the 
field, in conjunction with the regular army troops and 
with blank ammunition to make the exercise more 
realistic) ; the proper handling and use of the rifle 
and other arms in different branches of the service; 



the use of explosives; the tactical organization of the 
military forces of the United States; the psychology 
of war; the military history of our country; military 
policy, past and present; and the present scheme of 
organization of the land forces of the United States. 

The immediate outlook for the success of this enter- 
prise is very bright, but there may be a great differ- 
ence between the immediate outlook and the eventual 
outcome of any undertaking. The question here raised 
is not of the benefit to the health or the contribution 
to the recreation of those who join these students' mili- 
tary camps, nor even of the advantage to the nation of 
having a reserve corps in the event of a defensive or 
offensive war. The question here put is: What will 
be the effect of this student training on the spirit of 
militarism in the United States ? It is during the years 
of high school and college study that a young man's 
ideals become fixed. It is during these years that he 
chooses his occupation and gets the point of view that 
will be with him through life. Teachers in universi- 
ties and high schools affect not so much the present as 
the future of the nation. It seems to many that this 
is a time when the ethics of war ought to be brought 
home to the youth of this nation with all the force and 
power that teachers and preachers and parents can 
wield. It is not a time alone for discussing means of 
immediate defense. 

The United States is in a difficult position now and 

5 



the situation may, at any time, become dangerous. 
Such prudential methods as are necessary will have to 
be taken, although for these the strictest limits should 
be set. But this is a very different thing from the 
plan urged upon the students by the college presidents 
of attendance upon military camps, whose avowed ob- 
ject is to keep before their minds the conditions and 
duties imposed by war. The universities and the gov- 
ernment have provided no counter training, to develop 
the kind of life among the students which will make 
for a permanent peace. There are, of course, peace 
societies in all the universities, but their influence will 
be weak indeed when compared to the influence of the 
university itself, when backed by the authority and 
prestige of the nation's high officers. 

If the influence of the United States is to be for 
peace, then all the influence which the educational in- 
stitutions have should be exerted in that direction. 
The danger which the military training inevitably brings 
with it is that when the nation is equipped and trained 
for war, it may also conceive itself to be dedicated 
to war. 

The peculiar position of the United States in the 
world to-day has a significance, not only, we hope, for 
the present, but for all time. That we are not at war 
to-day is an accident, but that it should be the destiny 
of America to "do all which may achieve and cherish a 
just and a lasting peace among ourselves and with all 

6 



nations," is the hope of the great majority of our 
citizens. These words of President Lincoln indicate a 
national destiny far higher and better than that which 
can ever be reached by any military power or through 
any military means. To bring this hope and this ideal 
home to the students would seem to be the supreme 
duty of those who have in charge the management of 
our educational institutions. To this end there can 
be but one way, and that is so to present the facts of 
war and its causes, particularly the present war, to the 
minds of students that they will learn to hate war. 

Have the presidents of the universities enumerated 
above put themselves in a position to do this? The 
situation is different to-day from that of a year ago. 
Then the cry was that preparedness for war was the 
best thing to prevent war. Whole volumes were writ- 
ten (supported by lengthy economic arguments) to 
prove that war could never occur again. We were told, 
and many believed, that the tax for a strong army and 
navy was only an insurance against war. To-day these 
arguments still appear, but they are like pieces of torn 
and burnt paper blown through the air after a fire. 
We have been told that we must be prepared to de- 
fend ourselves, and yet we have seen all the nations of 
Europe going to war, each one protesting that it is only 
defending itself. And now in America we have the 
war alarm, and proposals without limit are being made 
to prepare America to take part in some future conflict. 

7 



And in line with this movement we seem, to find many 
of the great educators. It is, indeed, time to ask what 
the universities are doing to prepare for peace. 

If the universities and high schools sent out their 
students with the kind of ideals that would make them 
combat the causes of war, they would render a far 
higher service than by helping to train soldiers. It is 
in the minds of many that the universities often do 
fail just at this point, and that too often the best trained 
graduates take their places among the predatory 
groups of the community, with their intelligence sharp- 
ened, and their abilities heightened to take part in a 
merciless individualistic competition. The connection 
between universities and culture is very clear, but we 
have seen that high standards of culture are no barrier 
against either national or individualistic conflict. In- 
deed, there are many who believe that much of the 
teaching of history and of literature tends rather to 
glorify war. Baroness von Suttner, in "Lay Down 
Your Arms," presses home this point. The young 
soldier, meeting his friend in the battle, calls out that 
he feels that he is living for the first time an epic life, 
of the sort about which he had always been reading 
and hearing. It is the "heroic poems and heroic his- 
tories," the author says, "by whose means our schools 
bring up the young men to be fighters, that set vibrating 
in the minds of the young the sound of cannon, the 
flash of weapons and the shouts of combat." 

8 



And now we shall have in addition the psychology of 
war, for this is one of the subjects in the new curricu- 
lum taught under the shadow of the university. A far 
better use of psychology, although it seems to have re- 
ceived little enough attention, was proposed by Prof. 
James in his "Moral Equivalent of War," in which he 
describes the need of stirring the imagination of young 
men with the thought of patriotic service. He says 
that men are now proud of belonging to a conquering 
nation, and that they lay down their lives and their 
wealth if, by so doing, they may fend off subjugation. 
But who can be sure that the other aspects of one's 
country may not, with time and education and sugges- 
tion enough, come to be regarded with the same effect- 
ive feelings of pride ? Why should not men flush with 
indignation if the community that owns them is vile 
in any way whatsoever? Individuals, daily more nu- 
merous, now feel this civic passion. It is only a ques- 
tion of blowing on the spark until the whole population 
becomes incandescent, and among the ruins of old 
moral and military honor a stable system of morals 
and civic honor builds itself up. What the whole 
community comes to believe in grasps the individual 
as in a vise. The war function has grasped us so far, 
but other collective interests may some day seem no 
less imperative. 

Although the plan proposed by Prof. James of 
having each university student, lawyer, engineer, doctor, 

9 



give one year of his life to the service of the nation may 
seem quixotic, he does point out a kind of service to- 
wards which the university should be directing and 
helping its students, not for one year, but through all the 
years of their work. The training which is given to the 
doctor, the lawyer, the merchant in the higher schools 
in this country often fails of its highest service because 
it does not help the man to see the social significance of 
his calling; because it does not dedicate him to the 
public service in anything like the same degree to which 
the soldier is dedicated. The experience which the 
young soldier has as he marches under the flag is 
tremendous. For the time being he is one with his na- 
tion; he is ready to make all sacrifices. He has the 
supreme experience of living his ideal. 

Never until some agency, either the university, the 
government, or what you will, is able to connect the 
work and experience of the young man who goes into 
the peaceful pursuits with some such national or social 
aim can we hope to eliminate those elements of our 
daily life which inevitably lead to conflict. No institu- 
tion is so well placed as the university to do this. Why 
should'the army be the only department of the govern- 
ment to connect itself with the student body? It is 
true that through the post graduate departments of 
many universities, particularly Columbia, a great many 
young men and women pass into government service, 
but this does not affect the whole of the student body. 

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It relates chiefly to a few trained specialists. Could 
not the university do more to bring home to the great 
body of students the social and the ideal possibiHties of 
their profession, by indicating what are the needs of 
the community into which the students go, and so 
fulfil its chief service to the nation by furthering with 
all its manifold advantages and agencies the socializa- 
tion of medicine, law and business ? 

Fear is a great motive to call forth patriotic action, 
but it is not, as the advocates of militarism would have 
us believe, the only motive. Generous men and women 
can be stirred to sacrifice by other forms of injustice 
besides those which reflect on national honor. The 
thought that so many men by mere accident of birth 
should have to live a life of nothing but toil and hard- 
ship and obscurity can arouse generous action in re- 
flective minds. If peace seems so unworthy to many, 
it is only unworthy because the way that so many 
people work and live in times of peace is unworthy. 
The youth who is capable of being stirred by patriotic 
motives to right the wrong done in times of war can 
also be stirred to right the wrong done in times of 
peace. The cultivation of this spirit seems to be the 
proper kind of patriotic work in the university. 



II 



NON-MILITARY PREPARATION FOR 
NATIONAL DEFENSE 

By TAIT McKENZIE. M. D. 
Professor of Physical Culture in the University of Pennsylvania 

Intrepidity, contempt of softness, surrender of private 
interests, obedience of command, must remain the 
rock upon which states are built. — William James. 

At a time when the problem of national defense 
calls forth so many vehement statements, the clear 
summary of the fundaments of a nation's defense 
quoted above, is more to be considered than many a 
set of figures or arguments. Perhaps for the very 
reason that he was a lover of peace, James was well 
aware of the fact that there is no nation that requires 
discipline more than does the American nation. There 
is a certain lack of doggedness, of doing a thing for 
the sake of accomplishing it, in the American of to-day. 
The constant — somewhat childish — "need" of change 
that we yield to, works effectively against such train- 
ing as would result in discipline. 

Were physical training of a thorough catholicity 
compulsory, our boys would develop to a full meas- 
ure those qualities which are necessary for a nation's 
defense. Their mates would look out for it that they 

12 



acquired, if at first they lacked, a rugged physical 
courage, and a manly "contempt of softness." Every 
kind of work that is done by groups in the gymnasium, 
and every kind of game that is played outdoors by 
teams instils "surrender of private interest" and 
"obedience of command." Examples are legion: the 
skillful wrestler going through a drill in class with raw 
tyros and giving his best attention to helping them, the 
good batter on the team lowering his own average in 
order to score another player by a "sacrifice," the foot- 
ball player accepting a rebuke he did not deserve from 
a coach in silence, these and a score of similar oc- 
currences may be observed at any university any day. 
But the universities are training only one American in 
every thousand. In the common schools very little 
physical training is given to the average boy ; in fact, 
even those boys who have especial physical gifts are 
not (unless they attend one of the few private schools) 
given that all-around training of the body that results 
in muscular sense. As a nation we do not at all real- 
ize that the muscular sense needs training quite as 
much as any other part of the mind. 

But if, in the long run, physical training is not 
made the means to discipline, then universal com- 
pulsory military service is the obvious substitute. In 
training soldiers, just as in physical training, develop- 
ment of muscular sense is the prime essential. This 
development is, in any case, a slow growth. As be- 

13 



tween the two alternative means to that end, mihtary 
service and physical training, the latter, being so 
much broader in the range of its drills, and containing 
so many more competitive stimuli, when skillfully di- 
rected, achieves the desired result — muscular sense — 
more completely and also more rapidly than military 
training. Thus a man who already has muscular sense 
can learn the handling of the bayonet as easily and 
rapidly as he would master a new gymnastic drill. It 
is true, indeed, that the unit of the army is four, 
while the unit of physical training is the individual. 
But the fundamental evolutions of marching are taught 
in the gymnasium. Battalion drill only supplements 
them. Another important feature of modern military 
training which the physical director has anticipated is 
that of teaching the men how to take care of their 
condition and of the hygiene of their surroundings. 

There remain, then, two very important factors of 
the soldier's training: the taking of large bodies of 
troops from one place to another with ease and ex- 
pedition, and shooting. The first is entirely the 
province of the higher officers, and can only be learned 
in technical schools. The second — shooting, which 
includes the care of the weapon and equipment — is a 
difficult art and one which cannot be picked up in a 
short time. However, the teaching of it is one of the 
activities of the Public Schools Athletic Leagues to- 
day, and a large number of young marksmen have 

14 



qualified under its rigid standards. If shooting can 
be taught in this way to a large percentage of grow- 
ing citizens, the common wearing of the uniform may 
be discarded and the false glamor of war dispelled. 



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